Description

I think that the homeless population in Cumberland is constantly growing and that isn't completely being addressed the correct way. I feel like there are many solutions if we would work together as a team. The mission has 60 beds and they are normally almost always full, there is a place that houses women and children and they have 14 beds; which are always full as well. In 2013 there was a wait list for 31 adults and 30 children. The wait list was about 6 months long. We need to work together and figure out some solutions. I feel like a short term solution would be having more clothing drives. We can have people bring socks, underwear, t-shirts, sweaters, etc. I think a long term solution would be to take some of the abandoned house from the rolling mill projects and make them into extra housing for the homeless and low income housing for people. I do think that a deeper problem with the homelessness in Cumberland is the drug problem and the lack of help for people with mental issues because both of those play into homeless. If we don't find solutions for those two problems the homeless population will continue to grow. When I interviewed people in our community I found that many of them agree and feel as though the homeless population has grown over the past ten years. One of the people I interviewed actually came up with the idea of remodeling the abandoned houses in the rolling mills project and using them as homes for the homeless or turning them into halfway houses.